Phend TQ’s opening Truggy qualifier

Dakotah Phend has TQ’d the opening round of qualifying at the US National Championships in Hutto, Texas.  The Team Losi Racing driver took his Truggy around the large Thornhill Racing Circuit in a time of 10/7:33.918 to outpace defending champion Ty Tessmann by 1.74 seconds.  Behind last year’s Top Qualifier, a further 4.86-seconds off the TQ pace, Mugen’s Carson Wernimont completed the Top 3 narrowly out pacing the Team Durango of Ryan Lutz.

‘Really good’ was how Phend summed up the qualifier. Posting the fastest lap of the round being the only driver to do a 44-second lap, the Michigan teenager said it was a good clean run with no major bobbles.  Running Pro-Line X3 Holeshot tyres on his 8ight T, he said due to the overcast conditions the track was a little slower to come around but overall it ‘felt pretty similar’ to yesterday.  Very happy with his truck he said for Q2 he will leave everything the same including his tyre choice.

Tessmann said he was ‘over driving a little’ but in terms of the track he felt there was more traction today.  Running the same tyre choice as Phend, he said while the track is still loose it wasn’t as polished as yesterday.  Having ‘bumped the piping a couple of time’ and had traffic issues losing a bit of time with one truck in particular he said overall it was a ‘good’ first run.  For Q2, the Canadian has no plans to change anything.

After making ‘a slow start’, Wernimont was very happy to kick of proceedings with a third. Describing his MBX-7T as ‘really, really good’, he said due to his slow start he got caught up by Tessmann and having to let him through cost him a little time.  Other than this and a couple of really small bobbles he said it was a clean run. Running AKA soft Grid Iron tyres he said they ‘hooked up really good’ and he will go for the same option again in Q2 and look to the driver for an improved run.

‘Safe’ was the response from Lutz when asked about his qualifying run.  Running the same tyre as Wernimont on his Alpha powered DNX408T, he said ‘everything was good’ so he would continue with it as is for Q2. Aiming for ‘another safe run’, he said if he can get another solid run through that approach he will then ramp things up for tomorrow’s concluding day of qualifying.

RC America team driver Josh Wheeler was another who went for a safe first run taking his Xray to the fifth fastest time.  Going easy at the start of the run to ‘see where he stacked up’ he said he was a little too cautious with keeping his XT9 in the middle of the track and early on he was running 11 in the heat.  Quickening things up he was overall pleased wth the end result and for Q2 said he the aim is to ‘run a better pace at the start’ and ‘tighten up a little’ on his lines.

Completing the Top 6 was Kyosho’s Cody King.  Making a change to his truck for the qualifier as he looked for more rear grip he said this changed the steering and he had a slow start as he got used to it.  Running Pro-Line Holeshots, he said the wide open track makes it hard to make back up time but planning to run everything the same for Q2 he is hopeful of a better run.

Running in the second fastest heat, Agama team driver Jeremy Kortz would take his A8T to the 7th fastest time ahead of the Associated of Ryan Maifeld.  Crashing on the opening lap, losing almost 5 seconds, he said considering this he got lucky with the result but the rest of the run was ‘pretty good’.  Planning to leave the truck set-up as is, the former Buggy Champion said all he has to worry about for Q2 is tyre choice having run X3 Holeshots in the first one.

Q1 Truggy times – Top 10
1. Dakotah Phend – TLR/Orion – 10/7:33.918
2. Ty Tessmann – HB/OS Speed – 10/7:35.658
3. Carson Wernimont – Mugen/OS Speed – 10/7:40.342
4. Ryan Lutz – Durango/Alpha – 10/7:40.751
5. Josh Wheeler – Xray/OS Speed – 10/7:41.946
6. Cody King – Kyosho/Reds Racing – 10/7:42.764
7. Jeremy Kortz – Agama/Werks – 10/7:43.167
8. Ryan Maifield – Associated/Novarossi – 10/7:43.359
9. Billy Fischer – TLR/Novarossi – 10/7:43.632
10.Michael Truhe – Serpent/TOP – 10/7:43.699

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